1. Field
The present disclosure generally relates to the transmission of data over a network, and more particularly to the use of a computing device to identify data communicated over a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Users viewing content (e.g., text and images) displayed on an electronic device often want to find out more information about the content that they are viewing or perform certain actions with content that they select. Systems operating on such devices usually cannot, however, distinguish between content selected by a user, making it difficult for the user to interact with the content. One word of selected text does not necessarily mean anything different to the system than another word of selected text. With touchscreen devices, such as desktop or mobile devices with touch input, selecting content is especially cumbersome because it is difficult for the user to accurately select content using a finger. For example, if a user is viewing a web page on a mobile device describing a restaurant, the user may want to find out more information about the restaurant, such as the restaurant's location. The user may then select, as best as possible, content on the page that includes the restaurant's name, such as “we love Ramen Sushi out of all of the places we've been to.” The system, however, is not aware of anything other than that the user has selected text, and is not aware, for example, that the portion “Ramen Sushi” is the name of a restaurant.